Ciena Shares Surged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of networking equipment maker Ciena (NAS: CIEN) jumped as much as 12.6% on fairly average trading volume.

So what: Pulling up to this week's third-quarter earnings report, Ciena had a chance to strut its networking stuff on a big stage as Hurricane Irene blasted New York. The financial district and corporate networks across town made it through this trial by water with nary a hiccup, boosting share prices of well-represented metro networkers Ciena, Juniper Networks (NAS: JNPR) , Tellabs (NAS: TLAB) , and Alcatel-Lucent (NYS: ALU) , among others.

Now what: After buying the metro ethernet division of bankrupt Nortel, Ciena is a giant in exactly the kind of crosstown and interstate networking that faced a sterling test over the weekend. This event is a sure topic of discussion during Thursday's upcoming analyst call -- if nothing else, to distract investors from Ciena's habit of posting net losses and burning cash. If you're looking for a turnaround story in the long-distance networking sector, I think you'd be better off digging into Alcatel-Lucent or Tellabs at this point.

Interested in more info on Ciena? Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.

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